Video conferencing involves videos that are captured from multiple places. The video streams are then displayed on single displays. The video streams are usually transmitted to a video combiner at the display end over a communication network. The communication network can include, for example, the internet, a local area network, or wide area network.
Due to bandwidth considerations, the video is usually encoded as a video stream in accordance with a video compression standard, such as H.261, H.263, or H.264. The video streams are then packetized for transmission over a communication network.
The video combiner usually receives the video streams in a mixed order. To separate the video streams, the video combiner usually includes separate ports for each different video stream. The video combiner decodes the video stream and combines the pictures of the video stream for display onto a display device.
To keep the video streams separate, the video combiner includes separate video decoders for each video stream, for decoding the video stream. The decoded video streams are provided to a combiner over other multiple ports. As the number of video streams increases, the number of ports and video decoders also increases, thereby increasing costs.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.